ARMENIAN EMIGRATION: TRICKLE MAY BECOME A FLOOD
by Giorgi Lomsadze

EurasiaNet.org
May 13 2010
NY

With the Armenian economy’s winter of discontent far from over,
a second surge of mass emigration may be afoot, the United Nations
Development Programme warns.

As many as 300,000 Armenians could leave for the greener pastures
of Russia, Europe and the United States, if quality of life within
Armenia does not improve quickly, the UNDP report concluded. Armenian
men who work abroad and send home their earnings — a significant part
of the Armenian economy – might well choose to import their families,
if the government does not manage to create more jobs, stability and
democracy, the report said.

Armenians first started leaving their homeland en masse during the
topsy-turvy years of the Soviet Union’s breakup.